1st Edition

Airborne Electronic Hardware Design Assurance A Practitioner's Guide to RTCA/DO-254

By Randall Fulton, Roy Vandermolen Copyright 2015
    249 Pages 10 Color & 79 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    249 Pages 10 Color & 79 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Written by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) consultant designated engineering representative (DER) and an electronics hardware design engineer who together taught the DO-254 class at the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, Inc. (RTCA) in Washington, District of Columbia, USA, Airborne Electronic Hardware Design Assurance: A Practitioner's Guide to RTCA/DO-254 is a testimony to the lessons learned and wisdom gained from many years of first-hand experience in the design, verification, and approval of airborne electronic hardware.

    This practical guide to the use of RTCA/DO-254 in the development of airborne electronic hardware for safety critical airborne applications:

    • Describes how to optimize engineering processes and practices to harmonize with DO-254
    • Addresses the single most problematic aspect of engineering and compliance to DO-254—poorly written requirements
    • Includes a tutorial on how to write requirements that will minimize the cost and effort of electronic design and verification
    • Discusses the common pitfalls encountered by practitioners of DO-254, along with how those pitfalls occur and what can be done about them
    • Settles the ongoing debate and misconceptions about the true definition of a derived requirement
    • Promotes embracing DO-254 as the best means to achieve compliance to it, as well as the best path to high-quality electronic hardware

    Airborne Electronic Hardware Design Assurance: A Practitioner's Guide to RTCA/DO-254 offers real-world insight into RTCA/DO-254 and how its objectives can be satisfied. It provides engineers with valuable information that can be applied to any project to make compliance to DO-254 as easy and problem-free as possible.

    Preface

    Acknowledgments

    Authors

    Introduction to RTCA/DO-254

    Design Assurance Level

    DO-254 and DO-178B

    Overview of DO-254

    What Does It Mean to Me?

    References

    Further Information

    Regulatory Background

    Means of Compliance

    Guidance Materials

    Issue Papers

    Orders

    References

    Planning

    Plan for Hardware Aspects of Certification

    Tool Assessment and Qualification

    Alternative Methods

    Schedule

    FAA Order 8110.105 Aspects

    Hardware Design Plan

    Hardware Validation Plan

    Hardware Verification Plan

    Hardware Configuration Management Plan

    Hardware Process Assurance Plan

    Hardware Standards

    Validation and Verification Standards

    Hardware Archive Standards

    Submittals and Coordination

    References

    Requirements

    Why Use Requirements?

    Requirements Author

    System Requirements

    Types of Requirements for Electronic Hardware

    Allocation and Decomposition

    Timing and Performance Specifications

    Writing Requirements

    PLD Requirements

    Electronic Hardware Requirements

    Requirements Organization

    Systems, Hardware, and Software

    Validation

    Derived Requirements

    Creating Derived Requirements

    Validation Methods

    Philosophy 101—Design Assurance through Design Practice

    DATDP

    Device Selection

    Design Philosophy

    Design Execution

    Verification

    Functional Failure Path Analysis

    Appendix B Additional Verification

    Independence

    Review

    Analysis

    Test

    Test Case Selection Criteria

    Test Cases and Requirements

    Process Assurance

    Sampling

    Conformity

    Audits

    Audits of Configuration Management

    SOI Audit Dry Run

    Inspections

    Deviations

    Sub-Tier Supplier Oversight

    Configuration Management

    Why Configuration Management?

    Data Control Categories

    Configuration Management Activities

    Configuration Identification

    Baselines

    Baseline Traceability

    Problem Reports

    Change Control

    Release

    Retrieval

    Data Retention

    Protection against Unauthorized Changes

    Media Selection, Refreshing, Duplication

    References

    Additional Considerations

    Previously Developed Hardware

    Commercial Off-the-Shelf Components Usage

    Product Service Experience

    Tool Assessment and Qualification

    Summary

    Index

    Biography

    Randall Fulton has more than 36 years of electrical engineering experience in software and electronic hardware development and verification. He holds a BS from the Pennsylvania State University and earned his FAA DER credentials in software and programmable logic devices while working at Boeing Commercial Aircraft. As a DER, he has had approval authority for programmable logic devices since 1997 and has worked numerous Part 23 and Part 25 certification programs with field programmable gate arrays, ASIC, and software. Randall, along with Roy Vandermolen, taught the DO-254 practitioners course for RTCA in Washington, DC from 2006 to 2009. Randall has also taught the Airborne Electronic Hardware Job Functions class for the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. He currently works as an FAA consultant DER through his company SoftwAir Assurance, Inc.

    Roy Vandermolen is an electronics design engineer with more than 35 years of experience ranging from vacuum tubes to programmable logic devices, but has spent the majority of that time designing and verifying programmable logic devices and the circuit cards that employ them. Roy holds a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is currently a staff engineer and certification manager for electronic flight control systems at Moog Aircraft and an airborne electronics hardware OBAR for Boeing Commercial Aircraft. Roy has worked in a variety of research laboratories, educational institutions, military R&D facilities, and commercial aircraft flight controls manufacturers. At Moog Aircraft, Roy has been involved in the design, verification, and certification of numerous Level A flight control systems. Roy, along with Randall Fulton, taught the DO-254 practitioners course for RTCA in Washington, DC from 2006 to 2009.

    "This book, depicting the art of RTCA/DO-254 design assurance using the novel practitioner’s approach, is based on the authors’ and industry feedback, experiences, and lessons learned. Precise explanations ... provide efficient and clear guidelines directly applicable to appropriate engineering methodologies in defining, creating, and testing complex digital circuits for use in safety critical aircraft systems. ... The book’s structure, mixing adequate regulatory needs accompanied with explanations and real examples, can be read with ease. The clear chaptering covers chronologically the aircraft electronic hardware lifecycle execution from planning to deployment, including configuration management and process assurance. Thus the reader can swiftly access material of interest, as chapters can easily be related to the well-known ‘V-model’ development process. ... [Readers of this book will] learn how to comply with Federal Aviation Regulations and RTCA/DO-254, and gain insight into engineering best practices for airborne electronic hardware design assurance. Requirement capture techniques are applied and demonstrated through examples—a first in this type of technical literature. ... A very high-level writing style is found across all sections of the book. This book shall be considered as ‘the reference’ when designing safety critical aircraft systems. ... A tremendous book, setting founding grounds to be used by engineers, managers, and students involved or interested in airworthiness hardware certification and aiming to reduce cost, effort, re-work, and deployment schedules."
    —Dr. Patrick Mejasson, Thales Avionics, Paris, France

    "With a combined total of over 70 years of experience, Randall Fulton and Roy Vandermolen are veterans in aviation certification and airborne electronic hardware (AEH) development. Based on their vast and varied experience, they provide crucial information necessary to successfully manage, develop, and verify AEH. Reading this book is like sitting in a classroom with expert and battle-tested instructors. The concepts of AEH development, design, validation, and verification are clearly explained and illustrated. This book explains both the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of critical concepts related to DO-254 compliance. Additionally, the material is written at a level that is practical for systems engineers, managers, and hardware engineers."
    —Leanna Rierson, Digital Safety Consulting, Wichita, Kansas, USA

    "The succinct manner in which the requirements development methodology is captured is worth the price of the book. … provides a great reference for evaluating requirements development processes and standards."
    —Jeff Knickerbocker, Sunrise Certification and Consulting, Inc., Winfield, Kansas, USA